Fun with Photography

Intro

I love photography! I have worked in digitization for the last decade, and I really enjoy being able to use photography to capture amazing sights. This week we were tasked with finding 3 examples of photographic principles by a professional, and using the same 3 principles in photos we took. I used a Canon Rebel T2i with a 35mm macro lens  to capture mine. Here goes!

Leading Lines

Photo by Sweet Ice Cream Photography on Unsplash
https://unsplash.com/photos/SEv2hWSCgi8

This photo is a brilliant demonstration of the concept of leading lines. Like spokes on a tire, the pathways all lead to the center spot. Even though the paths are covered by trees, there is still enough contrast to see that they exist. Both the paths and the perfect placement of the camera all lead the eye to the center.

Photo by Tyler Harman (personally taken)

Here I chose a dirt road leading towards the mountains. Unlike the last photo, I decided not to center the road, but rather to place it in the right third of the canvas. You can see how the three linesm two from the road, and one from the horizon, all meet together in the center of the path. This draws the eye down the road and to the snow capped mountains.

Depth of Field

https://unsplash.com/photos/BiSFSSQtAmg
Photo by Marek Szturc on Unsplash

The photographer in this picture demonstrates excellent use of depth of field. How he got the dog to sit that still is amazing. Everything in the outline above, basically just the dog, is in focus. Everything beyond those lines is blurred. While we can tell that there are mountains and grass in the background, they all fade away so that we focus on the ice-blue eyes of this beautiful dog. Even though I chose this photo to demonstrate depth of field, notice the use of the rule of thirds. (More on that later.)

Photo by Tyler Harman (personally taken)

I took this photo of my daughter this afternoon to attempt to display the same technique. I set her body in the left third of the photo, with the scoop from the digger and the dump truck in the right third. Again, this photo is for depth of field mostly, but I wanted to combine more of the principles.

As for depth of field, my daughter is in focus, while anything outside of her is out of focus, to varying degrees. The bucket and dump truck to the right are slightly blurred, the fence more so, and the homes and mountains in the background are even more blurred. This all helps to draw attention to my daughter’s face, which is the subject of the photograph.

Rule of Thirds

https://unsplash.com/photos/f5QWC1a3tOA
Photo by Roman Logov on Unsplash

I love this photograph! It is brilliantly staged to display the rule of thirds. The tallest building is not perfectly centered on the left third line, but it’s close enough to do the trick. The top third is perfectly along the horizon, and there is a lot of interest and contrast in the bottom third. The eye is instantly drawn to the tall building on the left, and there is great use of “white space” towards the upper right.

Photo by Tyler Harman (personally taken)

As I was driving around today looking for things to photograph, I saw some prong-horn antelope in a field. I immediately pulled over to see if I could get a useful photo, and I couldn’t be happier with how this turned out. The highest peak of the mountain is almost perfectly along the right-third line, as well as almost touching the top third, which is just sky. The bottom-third line goes right through the middle of the herd. I feel like there is some great contrast between the three horizontal thirds, and the eye is drawn from the top peak down and to the left, through the herd.

Conclusion

This week was a blast! I love photography and I’m always trying to get better. Using the techniques of Depth of field, leading lines, and the rule of thirds can be the difference between a ho-hum photo, and a brilliant one.

Types of Type(faces)

Intro

This week we dove into uses of typography in ads, and I found a super simple Coke ad made by design firm, McCann Erickson Germany. I found the ad through a Google search, and the image itself was posted on Pinterest. This particular ad features 2 contrasting typefaces.

First Typeface

The designer used Coca-Cola’s original logo, which is written in a script-style font, in the middle of a red coke bottle. The logo is immediately recognizable. One of the hallmarks of a script-style typeface is that it looks handwritten, which it clearly does, from it’s flowing, cursive, almost calligraphic lines, and each letter smoothly transitioning to the next.

Second Typeface

The second typeface the designer chose was a very simple. We note on the tops and bottoms that there are no serifs and no bracketing. There is also no thick-thin transition anywhere, which shows the typeface as a sans-serif style.

Contrast

Because the two typefaces come from different categories, sans-serif and script, we already have contrast of structure. One looks handwritten with it’s connected strokes, while the other typeface is fairly plain and nondescript. The designer used the script of the logo because nearly everyone recognizes the logo.  The simplicity of the sans-serif text, next to the flowing script of the logo, implies that simply opening a Coke will bring one happiness.

Contrast is also achieved in the difference of colors of the two typefaces. The ad only features two colors, red and white. The Coca-Cola logo is written in white within the red outline of a Coke bottle, while the slogan, “open happiness,” is red on a white background. That contrast in color immediately draws the eye to the slogan, and then left to the logo. The movement from happiness to Coca-Cola as we read, as well as the slogan text seeming to come from the Coke bottle, again subtly imply that opening a Coke will bring happiness.

Lastly, these two typefaces show contrast of form. While we recognize the letters in each typeface, and most of them are lowercase, each of the shapes of identical letters is different, creating yet more contrast.

Conclusion

At face value, this ad seems as simple as can be. However, I was surprised as I dug deeper into the different typefaces that I could see exactly why the designer chose them. Each decision works in subtle ways to convey the message of the ad, and it is obvious that everything was placed exactly where and how the designer wished for maximum effect.

Find Your Greatness

Intro

This week we were tasked with finding a print ad that displays the elements of good design that we’ve been learning about. I admit that I struggled a bit with choosing one…not because I couldn’t find any, but because there were so many to choose from.

I ended up choosing a Nike ad from their “Find Your Greatness” campaign which depicts what I assume is a dancer. I actually found the image through a Google search, which led back to a Pinterest page, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/256705247484296415/?autologin=true. I couldn’t find any attribution for who the designer was, but I did find a press release on Nike’s website detailing the campaign. https://news.nike.com/news/nike-launches-find-your-greatness-campaign-celebrating-inspiration-for-the-everyday-athlete.

Contrast

This ad displays a wonderful use of contrast. The white text of the logo and slogan pop from the dark background and immediately draw one’s eye to it. While the subject has elements that fade into the background, the light shining on him, as well as the white shoes and paint line from his kick do a lot to break up the picture and create motion. The stitching on his pant leg shows great contrast from the rest of the leg and creates interest. The light also creates shadows on the background itself, and focuses attention on the subject.

Repetition

The ad also shows consistency by repeating elements of color. The logo and slogan are both bright white, as are the sides of the shoes and the paint swoosh. The corners of the page, the soles of the shoe, the shadow underneath the dancer, and most of the dancer’s face are also consistent by repeating the black. The paint line also creates a sort of repetition mimicking the Nike swoosh symbol.

Alignment

This ad shows good use of alignment by having the text and logo right justified. This creates a strong line for one’s eyes to go from the logo directly to the slogan. This also shows a good use of the subject being centered. I didn’t mark it, but the bottom of the Nike swoosh is also exactly aligned with the center of the page, which makes everything feel like it fits exactly where it should be.

Proximity

Here we can see that the slogan and logo are in close proximity, which delivers Nike’s message that Nike helps one to find greatness. The text is also centered on the middle of the dancer, which gives the impression that Nike is helping him to find greatness.

Color

The use of color in this ad is probably my favorite design element. While it’s a color photo, the shades of the clothes, text, and background almost appear to be monochromatic, which creates a really neat effect.

Conclusion

While it took me a while to find this ad, I’m glad that I did. I just wish I knew who designed it. The way the designer uses contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity, and color shows that they knew what they were doing and everything was well thought out and placed exactly where the designer wanted it. I’m not a dancer, but even still I can get the message that Nike is trying to impart.